Across the Studio

Mia Schoolman

A podcast recorded inside artists’ studios. Conversations about process, inspiration, and building a career as an artist.

Hosted by Mia Schoolman.

Instagram: @acrossthestudio
TikTok: @acrossthestudio
Substack: @acrossthestudio

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20 episodes
weekly
Avg 38 min
English

Episodes 20

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S1 · E23
August 10 · 48 min
Across the Studio with Von Kolk
In the 23rd episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Von Kolk, a painter based in Ridgewood whose current body of work is built entirely out of mistranslation. Von grew up speaking Cantonese but never learned to read or write it, so for years she assigned meanings to words based on a limited vocabulary and built small private myths around them. She thought a cheongsam was a singing dress. It just means long dress. Rather than correcting those errors, she uses them as source material. She keeps lists of words she isn't sure about, breaks them into their parts, and builds paintings out of the images those fragments summon. The work moves between dense rendering and bare line, mirroring the levels of understanding she actually has. She has decided not to learn to read Cantonese, because knowing would end the myths. She trained in classical oil painting from childhood, studied fashion design at Parsons because it seemed like the practical choice, worked in the industry for several years, and committed fully to painting after her husband told her she could. In this conversation: Why she refuses to learn the language. How she sources images from archives, film stills, and screenshots, and why that mirrors how she understands Cantonese. What it took to leave fashion. Why she stopped making the work she thought she was supposed to make. How to get out of a creative rut by figuring out what's actually yours. And why every opportunity she's had came through friends. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Von Instagram @vonhyinkolk Website vonhyinkolk.com
S1 · E22
August 2 · 35 min
Across the Studio with Lilah Yektai
In the 22nd episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Lilah Yektai, a painter and textile artist working between London and Sag Harbor. Lilah weaves her own surfaces on a loom she bought herself, then paints on top of them, building work out of scrap canvas from the edges of her wife's paintings, her father's paintings, and her own. She studied textiles at RISD and comes from three generations of artists. She was recently shown at the Bridgehampton Museum alongside her grandfather's paintings, her father's paintings, and her uncle's sculptural bench. In this conversation: why she paints on woven surfaces and lets fate take over. What happens when you weave for a month and a half and paint in an afternoon. Why she bought her own loom instead of sharing one. How she started painting Joanna while falling in love with her, embroidering their love letters into the canvas. What it's like sharing a studio with another painter who works in tiny detailed strokes when you work in fast thick ones. Growing up in a family of artists and figuring out what's yours. And the wedding at Saatchi Yates, where the show on the walls was all paintings of her in wedding dresses. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow LilahInstagram @lilahyektaiWebsite lilahyektai.com
S1 · E21
July 27 · 48 min
Across the Studio with Esther Ruiz
In the 21st episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Esther Ruiz, a sculptor based in Brooklyn who works with neon, concrete, plexiglass, carved wood, and stones she collects from around the world. Esther moved to New York two weeks after her last final at Rhodes College in 2010 with no plan and no job. She landed at a neon shop in Brooklyn where she stayed almost seven years, learning glass bending, gas, and electrical work. Her work has shown at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Chart Gallery, Reynolds Gallery, and BAM, and she recently had a two person show in Tribeca. In this conversation: how a job at a neon shop rewired her entire practice. What actually happens inside a neon tube. Why a sketchbook full of shapes she thought were stupid became a decade of work. How she runs five bodies of work alongside a full time job. Why she lets herself be a wreck for 48 hours. And why stones tell time. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow EstherInstagram @esther___ruizWebsite estherruiz.com
July 20 · 1 hr 4 min
Across the Studio with the NYFA Immigrant Artists
In this episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman moderates a live panel for NYFA's Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, featuring four immigrant artists building creative practices in New York: Vasudev Vashisht, Patrícia Colmenero, Luísa Mantelli, and Voyo Woo. Each artist immigrated to the US at a different point and through a different path, from grad school to journalism to a decade-long career in TV production, and each found their way into a full creative practice through NYFA's mentorship program. Their work spans photography rooted in land and community, painting that plays with colonial imagery and the idea of being seen, textiles shaped by architecture and space, and large-scale installations that combine 1,500-year-old paper cutting traditions with EEG brainwave technology. In this conversation: what it really costs to sustain an art practice as an immigrant in New York. Why working class artists can't always be full-time artists, and why that's okay. Finding community when you're starting out alone. The role of art residencies in giving artists permission to take themselves seriously. And the small rituals, from meditation to journaling to simply staying well-fed, that ground each of their practices. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow the Artists Vasudev Vashisht @wahsodev Patrícia Colmenero @patcolmenero Luísa Mantelli @luisa.mantelli Voyo Woo @voyowoo
S1 · E20
July 13 · 38 min
Across the Studio with Gabrielle Guthrie
In the 20th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Gabrielle Guthrie, an abstract painter based in Brooklyn who started her art practice in 2023 after a decade-long career in product design and entrepreneurship. She studied at Stanford's Joint Program in Design, started a company, sold it, and then felt an itch in her hands that told her it was time to make physical things again. Her work is described as dreamy, serene, and joyful—layered, textural pieces built across multiple panels using earthy tones with pops of neon. She starts every painting with a monoprinting layer using plastic bags, works on six to ten pieces simultaneously, and approaches her practice with both a creative and business mindset. She's collaborated with Tap In Collective, curated a show at Third Door Brooklyn, and is currently exploring rust as both a conceptual and aesthetic element in her work. In this conversation: transitioning from business to art. Why working on multiple pieces at once reduces pressure. Taking breaks to make better work. How art creates connection and feeling. And the rituals that ground her practice. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Gabrielle Instagram @gabrielleguthrieWebsite gabrielleguthrie.com
S1 · E19
June 28 · 38 min
Across the Studio with Daniel Tagbo
In the 19th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Daniel Tagbo, a figurative surrealist artist based in Brooklyn, originally from St. Louis. Daniel creates work exploring psychological themes of journey, searching, and the American Dream through surrealism, mythology, and lived experience. His first collection, Fever Dreams, created in his bedroom after graduation, was a dream journal made visual: paintings about the high-speed fever dream of New York, where hopes and fears collide. His current collection draws from the Labyrinth and the Odyssey as metaphors for the search for freedom, using symbolism to question the myth of the promised land and the American Dream itself. Daniel approaches each painting spontaneously—no references, no studies, no plan. He starts with color or a line and builds intuitively, discovering meaning halfway through. He thinks of each collection as an album, each painting as a song. A gallery visit in Nigeria during his sophomore year changed everything: standing among hundreds of works, something clicked, and he switched his major to fine art. In this conversation: the moment in a Nigerian gallery when he realized he wanted to be an artist. How fear escalates when more people see your work. Why he abandoned music to pursue visual art. His creative ritual of filling pages with vertical lines and studying figure drawing. How he maintains discipline within spontaneous practice. What five to ten years looks like—building a creative organization that combines painting, film, music, and mentorship into one cohesive world. And why J. Cole's approach to storytelling through music is what he aspires to do through art. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow DanielInstagram @danieltagbo and thank you @everyartistco for helping film this episode!
S1 · E18
June 21 · 49 min
Across the Studio with Sophie Kitching
In the 18th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Sophie Kitching, a French and British artist based in New York City who works across painting, sculpture, installation, and found object collection. Born on the Isle of Wight, raised in Paris, and now a decade into her practice in New York, Sophie creates work inspired by nature, architecture, literature, and the specific colors she collects from the places she has lived. Her practice spans Venetian blinds transformed with neon and gold leaf, polycarbonate paintings lined with two-way mirrors that feel like painting on water, and large-scale canvases that began as watercolors on paper. Her work has been shown at the Palais de Tokyo, the Maison de Châteaubriand, and she was invited by Bulgari to create a capsule collection for the 75th anniversary of the Serpenti icon — a collaboration that led to the discovery that emerald inclusions are called "the jardin" (the garden), which connected directly to her artistic vision. In this conversation: how she collaborated with Bulgari and Ruinart, the moment seeing her large-scale paintings unroll on a ballet stage felt like a heart attack, what she learned during a full moon in Bali when she saw the world in black and white, and why her ritual is keeping her brushes out in a controlled mess so the work always feels in progress. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow SophieInstagram @sophiekitching sophiekitching.com
S1 · E17
June 14 · 36 min
Across the Studio with Akiva Listman
In the 17th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Akiva Listman, a New York City based painter and third generation New Yorker whose shaped canvas works transform the everyday objects of city life into something worth stopping for. Subway seats, metrocards, road signs, pigeons, locks, and cones...the things most New Yorkers walk past without thinking...are Frankensteined together in Photoshop, cut from plywood with a jigsaw, and painted with craft and attention. Akiva works four days a week in his own studio and three days a week assisting artist Dustin Yellin. He has collaborated with Nike, Beams, and Only New York and showing at the New York Transit Museum in a show saying goodbye to the subway seats that are slowly being phased out of the city he has painted his whole life. In this conversation: why he waited years before cutting his first shaped canvas until he could make one he was proud of, how the head of basketball apparel at Nike found him through years of genuine kindness and patience, why every artist is a small business whether they like it or not, and the one piece of advice he gives to anyone who wants to do this full time: treat every opportunity like it could work out. Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio Tiktok @acrossthestudio Akiva ListmanInstagram @akivalistman
June 7 · 26 min
Across the Studio with Amanda Zheng
In the 16th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Amanda Zheng, a New Zealand born, New York based visual artist and designer who graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in communication design. Her work spans fine art, graphic design, and experimental material practice — from medium transfers and metal engravings to lithographic prints. Sponsored by Adobe and Apple, her work has been featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair, and she recently released Plume, a limited edition lithographic print collection about desire, excess, and the compulsion to construct a singular perfect identity. Amanda grew up as one of three students doing art in high school in New Zealand, where school counselors told her she was not going to America. She applied to Parsons on a whim, got in on a scholarship, and moved to New York at 18 with no blueprint and no one who had done it before her. In this conversation: why she approaches her practice more like an athlete than an artist, how taste is a privilege she only discovered after moving to New York, why every piece of inspiration she has ever used has come from offline, the 400 page artist catalog she designed as her senior thesis, and why her only ritual before making art is pressure. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudio@miaschoolmanTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Amanda ZhengInstagram @amandaaartWebsite amandazheng.com
S1 · E13
May 31 · 44 min
Across the Studio with Dipa Halder
In the 15th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Dipa Halder, a Brooklyn based artist working across abstract painting, florals, tablescapes, and interior design. Born in India and raised in the Bay Area, Dipa spent years as a software engineer at Figma before quitting her job the day she got back from painting a mural for their London office, not because she had planned to, but because she knew if she did not do it that day it would never happen. She spent the following year traveling solo, ended up at an artist residency in the mountains of Bogota, and eventually moved to Brooklyn to build a studio practice from scratch. She paints on raw unprimed canvas with water diluted acrylic, stitches canvases together with a sewing machine, draws images with salt, and makes tablescapes until 2am for supper clubs across New York. In this conversation: growing up South Asian with parents who nurtured creativity but never valued it as a career, the first apartment she turned into a gallery with 20 people and a last minute party poll, why she thinks she has been most depressed when she did not have a creative outlet, how putting financial pressure on your art changes your relationship to it, and the piece of advice she would give her earlier self about finding her style. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Dipa Halder @dipahalderstudio
S1 · E14
May 17 · 10 min
Across the Studio with Diego Miró-Rivera
In the 14th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman runs into Diego Miró-Rivera on the streets of Tribeca during New York Art Week. No studio. No appointment. No microphones. Just a U-Haul truck and the loudest corner in New York. Diego Miró-Rivera graduated from Yale in 2023 and has spent the last three years living on the road, with the back of his truck as his studio. He is a land artist, or as he prefers, a land student. His work is anchored in the natural world, literally and conceptually. He collected 100,000 cicadas by hand during a once in 221 year emergence and made paintings with them without a single drop of glue. He grew a sculpture from native Texas grass seeds over two years. In this conversation: why his favorite place to make art is literally called Art, why glue is the enemy of poetry, and what it means to give the natural world credit for its creations. Apologies for the street noise. We recorded this on the loudest corner in Tribeca with my voice memos on my iPhone...worth it. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Diego Miró-RiveraInstagram @gogomiro
S1 · E13
May 10 · 33 min
Across the Studio with Mallory Granata of Impermanence Studios
In the 13th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Mallory Granata, the Detroit-born, New York-based founder of Impermanence Studios, a multidisciplinary atelier working across sculpture, wearable objects, and material experimentation. Her practice exists at the intersection of fashion and art, deeply informed by archival research and unconventional materials — shark teeth, sea urchin spines, and porcelain hand carved to resemble metal. Mallory has spent the majority of her career building marketing strategy and brand experiences within the LVMH ecosystem, where years of working alongside heritage brands sharpened her understanding of archives, legacy, and what it actually takes for something to last. She is currently hand carving 1,200 porcelain razor clam shells to recreate Alexander McQueen's VOSS SS01 dress, and her finished Coiled Corset from The Overlook FW99 is one of the most labor intensive and quietly radical things I have ever seen in person. In this conversation: why the quote she read on a mountain about time guides her whole practice, a fashion designer's thoughts on the 2026 Met Gala theme, why she is revisiting the archives of the fashion masters and recreating them in materials that push back — shark teeth, sea urchin spines, and hand carved porcelain — the negotiation with materials that defines her entire process, and why slowing down has been the most surprising gift of building Impermanence Studios. Follow Across the Studio Instagram ⁠@acrossthestudio⁠ @miaschoolman TikTok ⁠@acrossthestudio⁠ Follow Mallory Granata Instagram ⁠@impermanencestudios⁠ @mallorygranata
S1 · E12
May 3 · 33 min
Across the Studio with Danielle Simone
In the 12th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Danielle Simone, a New York City based photographer, painter, and multimedia artist classically trained at Parsons, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been featured in Vogue, the New York Times, and Visionary Projects NYC and her surrealist, mad-hatter aesthetic has a way of making you look twice at everything you thought you understood. Danielle has photographed over 700 weddings, shot behind the scenes for John Legend and Sarah Bareilles, and had her illustrations animated for the MTV VMAs for Miley Cyrus (after someone called her with 30 minutes notice.) She paints feast tables, the seven sins, and upcycled clothing, and she does it all while building one of the most genuinely multidisciplinary practices in New York. In this conversation: the father she lost before college who compelled her to pursue art instead of stability, the seven sins painting she waited two years to make until she had a studio big enough to breathe in, why she never lets clients see a commission until it's finished, and the Steve Jobs quote that changed how she thinks about saying yes. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Danielle SimoneInstagram @dniellesimone @simonesimonenyc @daniellesimone.co Websitesdaniellesimoneco.com daniellesimone.art
S1 · E11
April 26 · 29 min
Across the Studio with Alyssa Stevens
In the 11th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Alyssa Stevens, a New York-based artist working primarily in oil pastel on canvas. Rooted in memory, longing, and the in-between spaces formed by childhood, Alyssa's practice returns again and again to the places that feel suspended in time. Her work is immediately recognizable — colorful, playful, and intentionally chaotic. Every mark is intuitive, guided by feeling and form, and what emerges on the canvas is as much a self-portrait as it is a mirror held up to the universal experience of finding yourself again. In this conversation: the childhood places she returns to in her mind and in her dreams, quitting her corporate data analyst job weeks after her first collection sold out in two days, what it means to find acceptance through abstraction, and why she believes every mark — even the ones she regrets — is exactly where it's supposed to be. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Alyssa StevensInstagram @alyssastevensssssalyssastevens.com
S1 · E10
April 19 · 46 min
Across the Studio with Cam DeMars
In the 10th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Cam DeMars, a filmmaker and painter originally from Montana, now based in New York. After years of filming professional skiers and alpine athletes across the west, Cam co-founded Benshi Creative before recently launching dontknow. film co, a documentary-focused company built around story-first filmmaking. Cam works across film, painting, and charcoal drawing, moving between commercial production and a fine art practice. His current body of work centers on combat sports — jiu-jitsu fighters and boxers rendered with an intensity that's less about the sport and more about who a person becomes at their physical and mental limit. In this conversation: the documentary about a man who's lived alone on an island off the San Juan coast since 1978, the boxer series Cam made to continue his late grandfather's unfinished body of work, the philosophy behind Don't Know Productions and why the name means exactly what it says, how marketing is an art and what Cam is still figuring out about rest. Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling artist. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Cam DeMars Instagram @demars_ camdemars.com
S1 · E9
April 12 · 40 min
Across the Studio with Kwamé Azure Gomez
In the 9th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Kwamé Azure Gomez, a painter originally from Akron, Ohio, now based in New Haven, Connecticut. Kwamé earned her BFA from the University of Akron and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and recently opened her debut solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Kwamé works in oil, spray paint, modeling paste, and mixed media, building canvases through layered, gestural mark-making that she describes as a full lexicon of felt experience. Her paintings draw from liturgical dance, queer ballroom culture, black radical theory, and personal ancestry, circulating what is felt rather than what can be explained. Standing in front of one of her pieces, you get the sense that something is still moving. In this conversation: the dream that determined the color of a painting, the OCD diagnosis that pushed her toward abstraction, her New York solo exhibition, and what intuition truly feels like. Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling contemporary artist. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Kwamé Azure Gomez Instagram @_kwame.azuregomez marianneboeskygallery.com
S1 · E8
April 5 · 41 min
Across the Studio with Mary Royall Wilgis
In the 8th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Mary Royall Wilgis, a contemporary artist originally from South Carolina and now based in Brooklyn, New York. Mary Royall calls herself a light painter, and her practice centers on a method she developed called light foraging: taking raw, unstretched canvas out into the street or park, and painting the imprint of sunlight and shadows in real time before layering oil paint back in the studio to capture what she calls the personality of the light. Her work draws from the legacy of the light and space movement and operates on the belief that light is not just a subject but a revelation worth stopping for. Standing in front of her paintings feels less like looking at a canvas and more like watching a window. In this conversation: the primordial soup of materials she uses to paint outdoors, the childhood kitchen window that started it all, the story of splitting her pants wide open in the middle of Fort Greene Park while working on a commission, and what it actually takes to sustain a painting practice when you're also managing a chronic illness. Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling contemporary artist. Follow Across the Studio Instagram @acrossthestudio TikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Mary Royall Wilgis Instagram @maryroyallstudio www.maryroyallwilgis.com
S1 · E7
March 29 · 36 min
Across the Studio with Leda Tsoutreli
In the 7th episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Leda Tsoutreli, a Greek-born painter who lives and works in New York City, where she recently completed her MFA at Pratt Institute. At just 23, Tsoutreli landed a solo show at Palo Gallery one month after graduating—a debut that sold out at the opening.Tsoutreli works in oil, creating expansive abstract compositions that explore the tension between spatial excess and the functional limits of canvas. Her work draws from Baroque, Rococo, and biblical imagery, but filters these references through a deeply personal lens: the scribble, the childlike line, the act of measuring time with paint. The canvases feel like windows into infinite, nutritious spaces where her hand can travel freely.In this conversation: the tiny gap between midnight and morning and where Tsoutreli finds timelessness; the ritual of staring at paintings over breakfast and dancing around the studio; the moment she realized she was imitating herself after her debut show; the way blue travels through her work like a ballpoint pen through drawing.Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling contemporary artist.Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudioFollow Leda TsoutreliInstagram @ledatsoutreliledatsoutreli.com
S1 · E6
March 22 · 34 min
Across the Studio with Ryann Woods Ham
In the sixth episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Ryann Woods Ham, a Brooklyn-based painter originally from Chico, California. After studying graphic design and spending years working in packaging design, Ryann made the leap in 2024 to commit fully to her studio practice. Working across painting, drawing, and ceramics, Ryann's work explores the idea that the interior self is inseparable from the larger stories that we inherit and share. Through soft figuration and dream logic, she paints worlds that feel tender, familiar, and just out of reach — inviting the viewer into spaces where animals and humans coexist world of their own. In this conversation: what it took to walk away from a stable career, the graphic design work you've held in your hands without knowing her name, the dreamlike worlds she builds on canvas, and what she's still figuring out. Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling contemporary artist. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Ryann Woods HamInstagram @ryawoham ryannwoodsham.work
S1 · E5
March 15 · 32 min
Across the Studio with Brandon Foushée
In the fifth episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Brandon Foushée, a Brooklyn-based lens-based artist born and raised in New Jersey who received his BFA from Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at Baxter Street Camera Club, and he is currently an artist in residence at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Brandon's practice begins with family. Working across photography, archival imagery, and printmaking, he explores time, memory, and familial legacy — weaving together his own photographs with found images from family albums to create work about fragmented histories and collective memory. In this conversation: how a lost art competition made him pick up a camera, the ethics of photographing the people you love, navigating imposter syndrome while working at a gallery, and why he defines a full time artist not by financial freedom but by habit. Whether you're an artist, curator, or simply art-adjacent, this episode offers an intimate look into the mind and work of a compelling contemporary artist. Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudioTikTok @acrossthestudio Follow Brandon FoushéeInstagram @fooshphotosWebsite brandonfoushee.com

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